One of the few Jewish establishments left on Brick Lane (traditionally a Jewish area of East London). It is the oldest and most famous bagel bakery in London. It produces an amazing 7000 bagels a night!

Open 24h, you will find people queueing at most times of the day and night to grab a bagel with salt-beef, smoked salmon and cream cheese, and other specialities.

Beigel Bake on Brick Lane posted by massagran

The Travel BlogCamp is an informal networking event held in London during the World Travel Market.  iwannagothere sponsored the event.

The event started with a networking cocktail, followed by a Q&A session with Chris Clarkson (Sunshine.co.uk), Hugo Burge (Cheapflights), Zoey Chant (Essential Travel) & Alberto Knapp (I Wanna Go There).

We spoke about twitter, quality vs. quantity of followers, paid content and how to engage users in your site.
All the conversations where really interesting and Kevin May , from tnooz, did a great job moderating it.

There were special talks from Murray Harrold (Advantage Travel), Joel Brandon-Bravo (Frommer’s) and Guillaume Thevenot (Hotel Blogs). The talk by Eva Keogan (Lastminute.com) was followed by a lively debate about the industry’s concerns with social media.

It was great to meet so many people (some of them we follow from a long time ago) like Karen Bryan (Europe A La Carte), Janice Waugh (Solo Traveler), Dot Pinkney (Tripbod), Antonio Bonanno (Tripshake), Daniele Beccari (Eurostarclient.com), Nadine Hallak (Cheapflights) and lots more .

It was a pity we couldn’t meet others like Andy Jarosz (501 Places), Jared Salter (Joobili) and Andy Hayes (Travel Online Partners). Maybe next year! :)

Thanks to Darren for organising such a great event!

Now that the sun in finally shining in London, outdoor plans are making a come-back!  And a cool idea to enjoy London is to use its boats.  Some boats are part of the public transport and some are more touristy.  But you can combine them at will to taylor your sunny river day.  Fortunately boats leave from the very center of London (right in front of the Big Ben, at the Westminster Millenium Pier) and offer a few different routes (here’s a PDF with the main routes).  If you have a travel card, you get a 33% discount, by the way!

My favorite one is the circular cruise.  You can see the “Dali Universe Museum” or “Aquarium” in the morning then Hop on at Westminster.  You can hop on and off the boat as many times as you want, so … first stop: Festival Pier.  Usually street artists, mimes, musicians populate the south bank in this area.  You can also grab a drink at the National Theatre (and if you’re lucky you might get free live jazz).

Next Stop, Bankside Pier:  The Tate Modern, the Globe Theatre, the Golden Hind and Southwark Cathedral are all a few minutes away.  The best option is to walk to the next stop (London Bridge Pier).  Along the way, Have lunch at Borough Market, a glass of wine at Vinopolis, and if you have time … walk to the City Hall.

From there you have two options.  Go under Tower Bridge (taking the boat at London Bridge), or walk on Tower Bridge, and get the boat at St. Katharine Docks).  From there, back to Westminster with some (usually funny) comments of the boat guide.

Once you’re back to Westminster, if it’s the weekend, check out the beach party at Festival Pier.

http://iwannagothere.com/users/massagran/routes/day-boat-trip-on-the-thames

Laura Porter (About.com:London travel) has written a great list of the top 10 free things you can do when visiting London.

Here’s the list:

1. Art Galleries: the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain, the National Gallery or The Wallace collection.
2. Museums: the Museum of London, the British Museum, the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Geffrye Museum  or the Horniman Museum.
3. Royal Parks: Queen Mary’s Rose Gardens, St. James’s Park, Hyde Park or Diana Memorial Fountain.
4. Changing of the Guard: at 11.30am every day
5. South Bank: London Eye, Tate Modern, The Globe Theatre
6. Trafalgar Square
7. Street Performers: at the The West Piazza of Covent Garden Market
8. Street Markets: Camden Market, Portobello Market or Greenwich Market
9. Westminster Abbey
10. Free Music:
    - Commuter Jazz on Fridays at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank from 5.15pm.
    - Free foyer concerts at the National Theatre, also on the South Bank.
    - Free Monday lunchtime recitals at the Royal Opera House.
    - Regular free lunchtime concerts at St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
    - Saturdays at Notting Hill Arts Club, see Rough Trade’s free showcase.

Now you have no excuse. You must go to London ;)

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